Ishrat case: MHA files FIR to probe into missing papers

In another twist to the Ishrat Jahan missing files case, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has filed an FIR at the Parliament Street police station to probe how, why and under what circumstances the crucial documents disappeared. 

The documents were reportedly missing from the MHA’s North Block office during the erstwhile UPA regime when P Chidambram was the Home Minister. 

In March, a team of MHA officials had found that five documents, including two affidavits, were missing in the sensational Ishrat Jahan encounter case. Then, an internal enquiry was conducted and it was decided that the probe would be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). 

But now, the MHA has directed the Delhi Police to probe the matter. On Thursday, VK Upadhyay, an under secretary in the home ministry, filed the FIR at the Parliament Street Police station under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servants) of the Indian Penal Code, asking police to probe “why, how and under what circumstances” five documents related to the case went missing. 

Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old girl from Mumbra near Mumbai, her friend Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh and two others were gunned down by officials of the Gujarat Police crime branch allegedly in a fake encounter on June 15, 2004, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. 

The papers that went missing and listed in the FIR are office copy of the letter and enclosure sent by the then Home Secretary to the then Attorney General on September 18, 2009, office copy of another letter sent by the then Home Secretary to the then AG on September 18, 2009, draft further affidavit as vetted by the then AG, draft further affidavit “as amended” by the then Home Minister on 24 September, 2009 and office copy of the further affidavit filed with the Gujarat High Court on 29 September, 2009.

The first charge-sheet filed in the case named seven police officers as accused, including IPS officers PP Pandey, DG Vanzara and GL Singhal. However, police’s contention was that Jahan and others were on a mission to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then the CM of Gujarat. 

DCP Jatin Narwal said: “We have filed an FIR in the Ishrat Jahan missing documents case and are planning further proceedings.”